


Destination Unknown

by ladivvinatravestia



Series: If You Need to Fall Apart [3]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Other, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Unhealthy Relationships, no beta we die like men, standard Winter Soldier trauma umbrella
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 10:08:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20946593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladivvinatravestia/pseuds/ladivvinatravestia
Summary: The Winter Soldier, after Sam Wilson and Natasha Romanoff take down HYDRA.





	Destination Unknown

**Author's Note:**

> For whumptober prompt "Isolation". Spooktober prompts for the day were "legend" and "Harry Potter AU", neither of which I am competent to write.
> 
> Fics in this series are currently in posting order instead of in narrative/chronological order.

After he pulls Captain America out of the Potomac, the Soldier returns to the bank vault.When he gets there, it’s swarming with lower-level Hydra operatives tapping away at computers and hastily packing equipment and paper files into go-bags.As usual, they pay him no mind, and so he pays them no mind, but heads directly to the lab where he is normally wiped and frozen.He can’t understand what prompted him to choose not to complete his mission, but he does know that failed missions lead to punishment.

He stands at attention by the Chair, the hours crawling slowly by.Out in the less-heavily-fortified areas of the vault, he can hear the operatives exiting the vault in twos and threes.He does not hear anyone entering the vault, and eventually he is the only one left there.He continues to stand at attention as his muscles cramp and his feet turn to pins and needles, and no one has come to punish him.Perhaps the waiting _is_ the punishment.

After a period of at least forty-eight hours, his vision is beginning to grey around the edges and he’s experiencing extreme difficulty staying steady on his feet, and still no one has come to punish him.Well.Since punishment is inevitable, he may as well break protocol to take steps to restore himself to functionality.

He shifts his centre of balance, then hastily puts out a hand to balance his weight against the Chair before he falls.Carefully, he bends his knees back and forth, one at a time, to get his circulation going again.When he thinks he can walk without falling again, he retrieves a bottle of water from the storage unit across the room and downs it all in one gulp, then heads to the bathroom.

After he relieves himself, he looks with distaste at the shower stall.It brings to mind sense-memories of being hosed down with a freezing cold spray, and he decides to forego it for now, sticking instead to wiping the grime and dried blood from his face and hands with wet wipes.Back in the lab, he mixes himself a nutrient shake from the materials in the storage unit and considers his next move.

His eyes light on the computer terminal in the corner of the lab.It’s locked and the screen saver is on, but he knows that people often hide their login and password information under their keyboards, or otherwise near their computers.His guess is good, and soon he’s logged in to the computer and accessing the internet.Maybe his handlers have left him coded instructions somewhere to follow.He spends 45 minutes hunched over the desk and navigating through various websites before it occurs to him that there is nobody there to stop him sitting in the chair.Whatever punishment is incoming when he finally does report in, sitting at a desk restricted to handlers and techs isn’t going to make it any incrementally worse.

As soon as he sits, though, he realizes that he’s swaying again and having difficulty keeping his eyes open.He’s not normally permitted to sleep on missions.He’s not normally out of cryo this long.Maybe if he just rests his eyes for a few moments -

The Soldier wakes with a start.The bank vault is still empty of other inhabitants, and he has no idea how much time has passed, except that the computer has locked itself again.He sits forward, intending to resume his search for coded instructions, but realizes he’s hungry and thirsty and has to piss again, and there’s nobody here to stop him from taking care of those things.He does so, and then returns to the computer still sipping his protein shake.He’s seen handlers and techs eat and drink while using the computer.

He logs in to the computer and begins again where he left off, searching systematically through the sites HYDRA has been known to use to communicate with its operatives.He finds nothing.It’s time to widen his search.He begins checking the websites bookmarked on the computer’s browser.The first one is something called “reddit” and it has a daunting amount of material for him to work his way through, but he has to keep trying.

But instead of any instructions from HYDRA, what he finds is raging and sometimes very vitriolic debate about any number of topics, from geopolitics to the relative sexual attractiveness of various female celebrities to whether or not pineapple is an appropriate topping for pizza.He dismisses most of these as irrelevant - he can’t eat pizza and Robert Redford is clearly more attractive than any of the women being praised - and concentrates on the geopolitics.There’s been something called HYDRAleaks and, although debate has clearly been going on for several days now, he’s eventually able to extrapolate that all of HYDRA’s intel and plans have been posted on the internet for anyone and everyone to see.

When he puts the pieces together, his heart leaps into his throat and his vision gets hazy around the edges again.Secretary Pierce will be - beyond angry.The Soldier should have done more to stop this from happening.He anxiously leans in toward the computer screen and starts to read more.If he knows enough, maybe he can start fixing things before they get too far out of hand.But - then he puts more pieces together and realizes that Secretary Pierce is dead - was shot to death by the Black Widow, and has been dead for several days.His eyes fill with tears, unbidden.Now what will he do?

**Author's Note:**

> Visit me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ladivvinatravestia), where my asks box is always open to prompts.


End file.
